


Berry Bear

by tooattachedtofiction



Series: Mind Palace Arcade Ficlets [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Ficlet, Human Sides, M/M, Prinxiety - Freeform, Sanders Sides - Freeform, mind palace arcade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-09 04:43:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20500937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tooattachedtofiction/pseuds/tooattachedtofiction
Summary: When a little girl approaches Roman with a broken toy, Virgil swoops in to save the day.Takes place between chapters 11.0 and 12.0.





	Berry Bear

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everybody! 
> 
> This is the first of many in this series Clam and I like to call the Mind Palace Ficlets! These are chapters/moments/scenes that we couldn't fit into the fic for whatever reason. You don't need to read these to understand the Mind Palace Arcade, but it's probably a good idea to read the main fic before you come over here. 
> 
> I would like to note that these fics are mostly going to be written by Clam (our roles switch, as I edit). I'm extremely proud of them and so happy that we get to share these little things with you all. 
> 
> We won't have a comment goal for these but they are greatly appreciated! Thank you for all of your support and happy reading!
> 
> Nox

Virgil sat in the control room, looking at the arena below. There were some days that he loved his job; well, the laser tag part of it. He got to see the preteens let out their inner nihilists. 

But the mechanic part of his job description? That was straight up _ weird. _

The first time he got a customer request, he was watching some kid get caught by someone on the opposite team and spreading his arms in a “kill me” fashion. His radio crackled before Roman’s voice rang out. 

They tried not to use their radios too much. The arcade was small enough that Logan and Thomas were always around _ somewhere, _ but still, every employee (sans Emile) had a walkie-talkie.

“Hey, small, dark, and handsome? How good are you at fixing voice-boxes for toys?” Ever since the fight, Roman’s insults had turned into embarrassing compliments. Virgil wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“What’s the code?”

“Code? Oh! Yes, the code! It’s, uh… code broken toy?”

_ Idiot. _ Virgil thought to himself. “Close enough. I can do that, run it up here and I’ll take a look.”

Before the radio could cut out, he heard a loud “Never fear! Your grea-!” and Virgil smiled in fondness. Roman was an idiot but (sometimes) he was a lovable idiot.

—

“What is _ that?” _

“No idea! However! It was vital to the happiness of the young princess it belongs to so we must be-”

“Yeah okay Princey, I’ll do my best.” And the door was promptly shut in Roman’s (not-at-all-attractive-to-Virgil) face. 

The toy in question was a blue.... thing. It had two little nubby legs with attempted bean toes just slightly off center. There were giant eyes placed on the side of the barely-defined head, with tiny pin-prick pupils and 2 inch, red irises. there were ear _ holes _, but no ears. Honestly, it almost looked like an off-brand furby with no endoskeleton.

On the chest sat a small, purple heart speaker that doubled as a button for said speaker. If Virgil wanted to find out the problem, he needed to hear it. Maybe the problem was as simple as a block or a broken wire. 

Okay, so the sound was horrible and ear grating, but probably fixable. He flipped the back and found the Velcro to open it situated between a pair of floppy wings. Inside was a voice box with... a couple frayed wires. How had it broken anyways? Nevertheless, it seemed easy enough for Virgil to replace that in a few minutes.

Even after Virgil replaced the wires and tested the voice box, it still sounded bad, but slightly better. The voice was even but still jumbled as ever. At this point, it would be easier to re-record the voice. With how simple the box was, it would be a quick procedure.

Virgil spoke into the radio “Yo, Prince Philip, can you ask the princess what her toy would say?” 

“I can!” A second passes, “the young princess says it was ‘much love, much heart, let’s be friends’, got that?”

“Yeah, okay. Over and out.”

Virgil sat for a minute, trying to determine the best way to record the high pitch voice it most likely had when the buzzer for laser tag went off.

Pressing the intercom button, Virgil leaned into the mic and announced, “All players please leave the arena and congregate in the waiting area at this time. I will join you shortly.”

Virgil made a quick sticky note to remind himself when he got back. 

“Hey Princey? I need to kick these kids out of laser tag. Give me half an hour.”

Twenty minutes and an unnecessary stats presentation later, and Virgil was back to his desk. The next round didn’t start for another hour so he had time to himself to relax and- oh wait, that blue monstrosity of a toy he needed to fix.

Virgil heaved himself out of his reclined position with a grunt and looked at the blue toy on his desk and remembered the sticky note placed on top, and upon a quick glance, it said “record voice for box. Much love, much heart, let’s be friends”. 

And looking at the thing, one was quick to deduce that it required a high pitched friendly voice instead of Virgil’s deeper, gruff mumble he had worked so hard on for the last 10 years.

—

Roman loved his job as a security guard. He didn’t really have to do much, at least not with Dylan around now. 

And while Penelope, the little girl, constantly asking if her “Berrybear” was fixed yet was a little annoying, he was confident in his coworker’s abilities to fix it quickly. 

It had been half an hour since Virgil checked in. Half an hour of Penelope following Roman around like a lost puppy.

Which is what lead him here, watching through a tiny crack in the door as Virgil did his best to sound like a squeaky child. Penelope was quietly watching him freak out from behind the safety of the door.

“Much love! Much heart! Let’s be friends!” A click. “Oh thank _ god. _ Okay, now let’s.... there, alright, finished.”

Roman realized he now had less than a second to move from the door to look as though he hadn’t been watching. He could act like he was just passing through, but he needed to be in the laser tag lobby to get into the control room, and that was a separate room from the arcade. Or he could say he was just checking up…

Wait, where was Virgil?

“Princey? You gucci?” Virgil now stood in front of a crouched Roman, toy thing in his hand and door wide open.

Roman jumped up and barely missed Virgil’s chin on the way up. “Huh? Oh. Ahem. Virgil! Have you fixed Berrybear yet? Princess Penelope has been waiting patiently for her... toy.” 

“I fixed... Berrybear? Up and now it speaks like it should.” Virgil said, shoving his hands immediately into the pockets of his hoodie. 

Penelope had already grabbed the supposed bear from Virgil’s weak grip and began to press the button as many times as she could, timing it so Berrybear would repeat the moment the phrase ended. 

“Why does Berrybear sound different? I thought you fixed her?”

Virgil hesitated and Roman, the charming and suave bastard as he called himself, answered for him. “Well, we had to fix her! Nothing is ever the same as before but, um, think of it like Berrybear growing up!”

The little princess accepted the answer and ran off without another question. Roman sighed, slumping against the wall after she and the rest of the arcade was out of his view.

“Wow. My knight in shining armor has saved me from awkwardness.” Virgil smirked, leaning on the doorway.

“Glad I could be of service.” Honestly? Roman would take it, even if it was sarcasm. Almost out of instinct, Roman leaned himself onto Virgil, crossing his legs and using his shoulder as an elbow rest. It was nothing short of a miracle Virgil didn’t shove him off immediately.

Of course, he did, once Princey had thought Virgil was complicit.


End file.
